Flow Rate

[R. Deschain]

Hello Everyone:)

I have a Oceanic Biocube 14 that has been going with live rock/sand and a clean up crew for 2 1/2 weeks.

(For my tank story thus far, it's all right here (http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/nano-reefs/4377-new-14-gallon-biocube.html))

The return pump is rated at 137 GPH

I just put a Maxi-Jet 1200 in, rated at 295 GPH (recommended by LFS owner...so far has given good advise)

Once everything stabilizes, i'm going to put to put in hardy species of softies, mushrooms/ricordia and maybe a hardy LPS specimen.

137 + 295= 432 GPH

432/14= 30.86 Tanks per hour

Is this too much flow?

Thanks,
James

[Steve480]

Not at all. You multiple the water volume you have by 20 and this is were you should be

[salt-rookie]

Not at all, too much! Mine is like 9,800 GPH in my 180! That's like almost 60 times turnover! But I'm SPS exclusive.

[PSH]

I try to shoot for 40-50 times turn over at a minimum.

[lReef lKeeper]

i have about 45x turnover in my 125 sps,lps tank.

[slebla240]

glad i read this... i just bought 3 max-jets400 (total 300 gph) for my 20 gal. now i know to bump it up to double. maybe i can get a few more stronger pumps and run them thru a wave maker. do you still add all of them if they go thru a wave maker?

[R. Deschain]

Just so everyone knows, the Maxijet 1200 shot my temp up to 85. I've since been using just the stock pump. Temp is fine. Today I put in a mushroom and a ricordia. We'll see how it goes....

[V]

well some of your softies might not like that much dirrect current, however if you defuze any dirrect injections & still create eddies & swirls with max turn over then your laughing. Placement & jet stream interactions can play a greater role than pure raw turn over in most cases. "Think outside for inside the box" :)

[slebla240]

Just so everyone knows, the Maxijet 1200 shot my temp up to 85. I've since been using just the stock pump. Temp is fine. Today I put in a mushroom and a ricordia. We'll see how it goes....

thanks for that info... i did not think about the added temp of a larger pump


well some of your softies might not like that much dirrect current, however if you defuze any dirrect injections & still create eddies & swirls with max turn over then your laughing. Placement & jet stream interactions can play a greater role than pure raw turn over in most cases. "Think outside for inside the box" :)

i'v heard to direct opposing pumps at each other for the eddie effect. when you say think outside for inside the box, do you mean direct your flow at the tank walls?

once again.. thanks for the info. sorry if i am hyjacking your tread. just trying to get some answers ;)

steven

[R. Deschain]

No Problemo Slebla...

If my questions generate more questions with an ensuing discussion that results in everyone (posters & lurkers alike) learning something...then it's all good :up:

[lReef lKeeper]

well some of your softies might not like that much dirrect current, however if you defuze any dirrect injections & still create eddies & swirls with max turn over then your laughing. Placement & jet stream interactions can play a greater role than pure raw turn over in most cases. "Think outside for inside the box" :)

slebla, you trying to figure out what what our foreign friend is trying to say ?? it took me a WHILE to figure it out too !!

"Think outside for inside the box" means this ... think outside the box for INSIDE the tank. think of "different" ways to get flow INSIDE the tank. you only want 10 -20 times turnover through the sump ... the rest should be IN TANK turnover (done with PH's or CLS).

[doctorthompson]

As far as flow goes:
"too much" is when your sand can't even settle ...
"just enough" is about 1gph less than "too much" :)

In any case, in addition to turbulence you typically want solids to remain in suspension so your filter feeders and your protein skimmer can eventually pull them out. Drop a small chunk or two of flake food in the water and watch them for a while ... if they're able to settle anywhere you should adjust your water flow so they can't settle. This could be a simple matter of adjusting a powerhead's direction or location, or you may find that you need to add additional powerheads or manifold outlets in order to keep solids in suspension.

Rob covered a lot of this in one of the early podcast episodes (episode 5.1, I think) and went over other tips on achieving turbulence such as deflecting flow off the glass and converging the flow from multiple powerheads at a single location.